Sunday, May 24, 2026

Further thoughts of Space and Time and the pesukim of האכל יאכל ביום השלישי

 The constraints of Space & Time being universal and the most fundamental. They define the "pain" of life in עולם הזה  itself. Possibly being the intention in יפה שעה אחת של קורת רוח בעולם הבא מכל חיי העולם הזה.

With that being recognized - the closest torah sources that I can think of that reference both Space and Time being that of the korbanot - the strict limitations in all aspects of korbanot to space (e.g. נאכלין לפנים מן הקלעים או בכל העיר) and time (e.g. שני ימים ולילה אחד).

But most specifically emphasized in the laws of פסולי מחשבה learnt from the pesukim of האכל יאכל ביום השלישי  mentioned both in Parshat Tzav (ויקרא ז יח) and Parshat Kedoshim (ויקרא יט ז)  - deriving from them the פסולי מחשבה of חוץ לזמנו וחוץ למקומו  (seemingly the dimension of Time subsuming that of space since the Torah chooses to state both of them in terms of Time and only learn חוץ למקומו from אם אינו ענין תנהו ענין...

The idea its possibly teaching there is that one must bring a korban specifically from his own Time and Space and cannot attempt to "fantasize" himself outside of that - as for example ובאת אל הכהנים הלוים ואל השופט אשר יהיה בימים ההם. One must offer to shamayim specifically and only ממקומו ומזמנו.

But that nice idea doesn't solve the difficult fact that the Torah writes these pesukim in a very difficult way considering the mesorah of תורה שבעל פה.
Firstly - the fact that no mention of מחשבה is in the words אם האכל יאכל! Yet we are taught that מחשבת פיגול  is specifically a function of מחשבת הכהן  only.... quite problematic.

Secondly - why choose to write by the pasuk of חוץ למקומו the words of ביום השלישי!  Even if it will be derived through אם אינו ענין תנהו וכו'....

I'd like to offer an answer to both problems. The current pasuk of ביום השלישי allows us to associate to מעמד הר סיני where it says several times ביום השלישי. And where do we find אכילה   by מתן תורה? (as per the pasuk אם האכל יאכל ביום השלישי) --

וְאֶל אֲצִילֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא שָׁלַח יָדוֹ וַיֶּחֱזוּ אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאכְלוּ וַיִּשְׁתּוּ (שמות כד יא) 

if you learn that the pasuk is a reference to נדב ואביהוא and some sense of "breach of boundaries" on their part - well then you have an example of חוץ למקומו... and hence אם האכל יאכל ביום השלישי

And then it works very nicely that the final death knell of נדב ואביהוא was specifically a function of time and חוץ לזמנו - bringing the ketoret NOT on יום הכפורים. Also fitting that their death only came from the sin of  חוץ לזמנו since only חוץ לזמנו  creates פיגול  and עונש כרת.

[possibly also the other sins attributed to נדב ואביהוא can be understood in terms of a invalid perception of חוץ לזמנו - for example the choice to not have children, or the sin of מתי ימותו שני זקנים אלו, or maybe even the sin of שתויי יין is only a sin בעולם הזה but not לעתיד לבא... who knows צע"ע[



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